# Montecristo Edmundo



## kass (May 16, 2007)

Picked this guy up from one of the 3 cigar shops in South Korea. Not a great pic but it looks like it's been taken care of nicely!


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## greycliff (Jan 6, 2008)

Do many Koreans smoke cigars? Nice pick up though, I got one of those last week from my shop in Vancouver. Funny thing about it, even though we have more than 3 shops I only shop from 2 of the many here.

Jacob


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## Matt257 (Jan 3, 2008)

Great pick up. The Edmundo is a great smoke


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## Mtmouse (Jun 11, 2007)

How's the selection and prices over there?


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## degarbie (Aug 12, 2007)

Great smoke


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## Ecto1 (Jan 26, 2008)

I was stationed in Youngsan south Korea ( subburb of Seoul). I used to go to this great blues bar that had a selection of cigars. To bad this was before I smoked cigars.


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## Habana-cl (Nov 7, 2007)

Very nice. I actually just smokedd my last one yesterday afternoon after getting home from being on the road. There is something about the smell and flavor of cuban tobacco. As soon as the flame hit the end I could start savoring it. Flint


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## iloveclmore (Jan 23, 2008)

Looks very nice!


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## kass (May 16, 2007)

Mtmouse said:


> How's the selection and prices over there?


I've only been to 2 of the three retail cigar shops. One of them was the Casa Del Habanos. It had a nice selection of Habanos, but it was weird because the humi wasn't organized at all. No prices were listed and the girl working the humidor didn't know the prices of half the cigars. To check them she pulled out a note pad that had the prices written down and she still couldn't find the prices for some. The other shop I visited is called Maska's. It was a nice small shop. Small humidor. The owner also runs a cigar club called Seoul Cigar Aficionado Club. Unfortunately he wasn't there when I went. But they have a couple events a month. The third shop is a Davidoff store. Hopefully I'll get to it soon. All these shops are located in VERY nice hotels. The prices were about the same in the 2 shops I visited. Quite pricey, but not as bad as Canadian prices. I paid around $12 for a Bolivar no.2 tubos, $12 for a cuaba generoso and $22 for this edmundo. The CdH only sold Habanos, of coarse, and so did Maska's except for a few of the Flor de Oliva giants. I'm hoping to find some Cuban Davidoffs at the Davidoff shop. 
Around Seoul, especially Itaewon, there are a bunch of bars that sell cigars, also.


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## kass (May 16, 2007)

Smoked this cigar last night. The first inch or so was like smoking air, no taste and a very uneven burn. But, after that first inch it was great. Very smooth and mellow, with tons of flavour and a little kick in the ass. The cigar was very soft though and it burned pretty fast, only around an hour and it usually takes me and hour to smoke a corona.


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## Vacilando (Feb 14, 2008)

Hey Kass,

Smoked the Cuaba yet? I almost bought it myself just a couple days ago but Ted (the shop manager) warned that it has an incredibly tight draw.

I'm good friends with Vince, the owner of Maska's, and heavily involved in the Seoul Cigar Aficionado Society. Which, FYI, is having a big meeting (vince's birthday) at Gecko's Garden in Itaewon this saturday night. You need to rsvp though. http://seoulcigaraficionadosociety.blogspot.com for info.

FYI: currently ALL of the (legal) Cuban cigars in Korea are imported by Pierre.

Pierre's done a lot for cigars in Korea, but things have kind of plateaued. For Pierre, cigars are just a side business. Vince, on the other hand, is investing a lot of his own money out of pocket to try to develop the market further.

Don't ever buy a Cuban cigar from Itaewon unless you know it's from Pierre (though people have complained recently that Pierre doesn't take very good care of the cigars in his shop. Vince is meticulous about them once he gets them from Pierre though, and if you're not sure about a cigar you can ask Vince or Ted if it looks okay and they'll be honest about it). There have been reports of counterfeits floating around as well, but you can trust Pierre and Vince's authenticity.

Let me know if you want any information about the Cuban cigar industry in Korea or Asia in general actually. There's a lot of interesting things going on in the biz, and a lot of changes will take place over the next few months. I wrote a long article about it that I'm currently shopping around to try and get it published, but you can read my previous writings about it here:

http://seoulsteves.com/index.php?s=cigar

The place to start, I guess, is this post:

http://seoulsteves.com/2007/08/26/seoul’s-cigar-culture-the-man-that’s-changing-everything/


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## Vacilando (Feb 14, 2008)

I take that back. I just remembered that the luxury importing company, Blue Bell, sells the Davidoffs. Their primary shop is in the Shilla Hotel up north. You might be able to find them near the wine section of department stores, but I don't think the display cases are climate controlled.


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## kass (May 16, 2007)

stvwrd said:


> Hey Kass,
> 
> Smoked the Cuaba yet? I almost bought it myself just a couple days ago but Ted (the shop manager) warned that it has an incredibly tight draw.
> 
> ...


Hi Steve, Welcome to the site!
I did smoke the cuaba. It was a really nice cigar. The draw started pretty tight but loosened up eventually. I've also heard about draw problems with the cuabas, because of their shape.
I ran across your site a few weeks ago through the Seoul cigar aficionado soceity site. Been reading through a bunch of stuff on there.
Which shop is Pierres?
I'd love to hear more about the cigar industry in Korea!
Unfortunately I have plans for this weekend, so I can't make it to the event. I'm going to visit some friends who live down south.


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## Vacilando (Feb 14, 2008)

Pierre runs the cigar bar in the Grand Intercontinental Hotel, but his office and club is near the Hyatt Hotel and Namsan tower (Itaewon neighborhood). It's something like a million won per year (about $1,000 US), with a 2 mil sign up fee your first year.

It's an okay place. Actually there's a short video of the place if you play around with the video player on our site. If you really just need a place away from home to chill out and smoke some cigars then it could be worth the money, but in my case it isn't. I've been there several times purely because of my friendship with Vince.

Actually, on most saturdays Vince is at the shop in the Marriott with around 2 or 3 hanging out and smoking cigars. I make it myself about every other week, as I live very close by, so if you want to come some time, just drop me a line and I'll confirm that people are gonna be there.

Thanks for the feedback on the Cuaba. I'll probably give it a shot in the next week or two.


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## kass (May 16, 2007)

stvwrd said:


> Pierre runs the cigar bar in the Grand Intercontinental Hotel, but his office and club is near the Hyatt Hotel and Namsan tower (Itaewon neighborhood). It's something like a million won per year (about $1,000 US), with a 2 mil sign up fee your first year.
> 
> It's an okay place. Actually there's a short video of the place if you play around with the video player on our site. If you really just need a place away from home to chill out and smoke some cigars then it could be worth the money, but in my case it isn't. I've been there several times purely because of my friendship with Vince.
> 
> ...


Cool. I'll try to make it down there sometime soon to herf with you guys.
The cuaba was good, but that bolivar I got there was MUCH better!


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## Vacilando (Feb 14, 2008)

Cool, then maybe I'll see you around soon!

Not to mention my website again, but I just posted a new article about a big SCAS event last month:

http://seoulsteves.com/2008/02/18/a...rt-cigar-magnate-willy-alvero-comes-to-seoul/

If you have some time you might give it a read.

See ya!


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## kass (May 16, 2007)

Cool, I'll check it out. 
I wish I could have gone to that event, found out about it a week or so after it happened.

EDIT: Great article, thanks for sharing!

I found these paragraphs VERY interesting: 
"People living in Korea may soon be among the first in the world to preview what post-Castro Cuban cigars will taste like. As Castro’s health has worsened in the past couple years, people have sensed that everything could change very quickly any day now. The farmers tilling the same soil their parents did know that it is a time of transition and have started making their own contacts to export, in very limited qualities, their private stock of cigars with an entirely new label and name. They don’t need to be advertised because the people that know about them will be more than enough to buy up the full stock. This all goes on fairly openly, and Alvero claims that Raul Castro has indicated that as long as the quantities are low, the Cuban government will be hands-off with these operations.

Officially, these are generic cigars of unknown origin. They can’t be found everywhere and you have to know what you’re looking for to be able to spot them. If these are going to be the future of the cigar world, then I can tell you from personal experience that the future is, indeed, as bright as it seemed the day I tried my first Punch Pita."

WHERE CAN I GET SOME OF THESE!!??


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